Joe Burrow, LSU too much for Clemson on way to national championship

By winning title Joe Burrow caps off greatest individual season in college football history

SportsPulse: The 2019 LSU Tigers will go down as the greatest team in program history. For Joe Burrow, his 2019 campaign ranks as arguably the greatest individual season we may have ever seen in 150 years of college football.

NEW ORLEANS — No. 1 LSU overcame a sluggish start to beat No. 3 Clemson 42-25 in a battle of unbeaten teams at the Superdome to capture the program's third national championship since 2003 and the first under coach Ed Orgeron.

In doing so, LSU became the second team since 1897 to go 15-0 in a season, joining 2018 Clemson. The win cements the Tigers’ place among the great teams to ever come out of the SEC and adds this year's team into the conversation for the best Bowl Subdivision team of the past 30 years.

There was a time on Monday night when the two national powers circled one another like heavyweights, trading punts like jabs as the pair eased into the national championship game.

Comfort zone established with minutes left in the first quarter, the matchup of college football's last two unbeaten teams met pregame expectations. Behind two elite quarterbacks and a wealth of NFL-ready talent, LSU and Clemson began trading more serious blows as the offenses took over the spotlight.

Clemson scored first on a Trevor Lawrence touchdown. LSU drew even. Clemson went ahead 17-7 with 10:38 left in the second quarter. LSU made it 17-14 on the ensuing drive after a short Joe Burrow touchdown run. After forcing a Clemson punt, LSU marched 87 yards on six plays in just over two minutes to take the 21-14 lead. Another Burrow touchdown strike late in the second quarter sent LSU into halftime with a 28-17 lead. After a sluggish start, the floodgates had opened — and even against Clemson's dynasty, LSU looked unstoppable.

Clemson would draw within a field goal at 28-25 but LSU would respond again, taking a 35-25 lead into the fourth quarter. And on a drive early in the fourth quarter, Burrow threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to push LSU ahead 42-25 and force Clemson into a tight corner.

All year long, Burrow and LSU had an answer. In the end, LSU's offense was too much for anyone to handle, Clemson included. After this season, it's interesting to consider where 2019 LSU slots into the list of the best teams in college football history — and it might right near the top.

The championship game was played in front of a pro-LSU crowd, though the advantage was not as wide as predicted: Clemson fans took up a significant portion of the Superdome, bringing some balance to what was expected to be a more hostile neutral-site environment.

Here are three observations from the Tigers' win:

1. The battle of offenses goes in LSU's favor

You had Burrow, the Heisman winner, on one side. An elite prospect of his own in Lawrence on the other. Combined, you may have been watching the top overall pick in the 2020 NFL draft and the top pick in the 2021 draft. In an unreal quarterback matchup, particularly given the stakes at play, it was Burrow who came out on top. While Lawrence had a rare off night, with unpredictable inaccuracy on several throws in both halves, the LSU senior continued to play at the sort of level that made his year one of the best by a quarterback in Bowl Subdivision history.

Burrow finished with 449 passing yards on 30 completions with five touchdown passes to go with 58 yards on the ground. (He ends his senior year with the FBS single-season record for touchdowns.) He had two first-half completions of 50 or more yards to receiver Ja'Marr Chase, who finished with nine receptions for 221 yards and two scores. Meanwhile, Lawrence completed 18 of 37 attempts for 234 yards in the worst performance of his career. In all, LSU accounted for for more than 300 yards of offense in the first half and gained 630 yards overall.

Monday night reinforced how offenses now rule college football, and in attacking the nation's top-ranked defense so successfully LSU's offense proved it was worthy of the season-long hype and acclaim.

2. LSU's defense made the game-winning plays

Neither defense was particularly effective, though each had moments — Clemson in the first quarter, LSU in the second, and both in the second half as the game began to tighten. When push came to shove late, however, LSU's defense delivered the sort of game-winning plays that prevented Clemson from making up that halftime deficit. One key moment in particular: After a questionable pass-interference call gave Clemson a first down on a drive midway through the third quarter, LSU's defense responded to force three negative plays and a punt. LSU had an answer, as the Tigers had all season.

At the same time, LSU did benefit from Clemson's missed chances on offense. Unlike in last year's romp against Alabama, Lawrence was far from perfect, with a handful or more of throws that sailed over the heads of intended targets. Twice earlier in the game, Clemson opted to punt inside the LSU 40-yard line rather than attempt a fourth-down conversion. But LSU's defense deserves credit for joining the offense to create the sort of overall performance needed to unseat the defending national champions.

Most noticeably, LSU held Clemson to just one conversion on third down on 11 chances. Clemson entered the championship game ranked 17th nationally in converting 46.7% of its tries on third down.

3. LSU earns a place in history

At 15-0 with a number of very impressive wins, LSU has earned a spot among the best teams in recent college football history. This is the best team in program history, for one, dwarfing the recent title teams from 2003 and 2007. It's the most productive offense to ever stroll through the SEC, led by one of the sport's great single-season quarterback performances. In this year's playoff games, LSU dismantled Oklahoma in the Peach Bowl and then knocked off a dynasty in Clemson that entered Monday night on a 29-game winning streak that spanned more than two calendar years. There's no doubt that LSU will be mentioned alongside 2001 Miami (Fla.), 1995 Nebraska and some of Nick Saban's teams at Alabama as the best teams of the past 30 years.